Former STA teacher charged with child pornography dies

BARRINGTON — Daryl J. Robertson, 39, subject of a federal investigation into possession of child pornography images, died Sunday, according to an obituary submitted to area media on Thursday.

By Liz Markhlevskayalmark@fosters.com

BARRINGTON — Daryl J. Robertson, 39, subject of a federal investigation into possession of child pornography images, died Sunday, according to an obituary submitted to area media on Thursday.

No cause of death has been confirmed. Robertson is a former resident of Greenland and Eliot, Maine, but is now listed as being a Barrington resident.

Robertson, a former teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas, was facing seven felony counts alleging possession of images of nude boys engaged in sexual behavior, according to court records. Foster's previously reported that Robertson was charged after police conducted a search at Robertson's former home in Greenland on Jan. 31, and found a disk containing “explicit images of minors engaged in sexual activity.”

According to the Portsmouth Herald, court records indicate that the search was initiated by federal agent Scott Kelley, of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

In an affidavit for the federal warrant, filed at U.S. District Court of New Hampshire on Jan. 31, Kelley wrote that since October 2010, he had been investigating the production and international sales of child exploitation films, according to the Herald. The films were shipped from an unspecified country to a New York warehouse, which had been raided.

Investigators found information about hundreds of Americans who had ordered the material, including one repeat customer with a billing address of 285 Post Road in Greenland, which was Robertson's home until he moved to southern Maine, according to the Herald.

Robertson is alleged to have purchased child pornography between September 2010 and April 2011, according to a court affidavit.

Robertson was employed for six years as a music teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas, but was dismissed after an arrest for alleged inappropriate touching of a student visiting his home. In March 2009 he was given a suspended jail sentence for sexually assaulting the former student by reaching out and grabbing him through his bathing suit. He was sentenced to 10 days in the Rockingham County jail, with all of it suspended pending his good behavior for a year.

The conviction was subsequently annulled.

In June, Robertson's case was transferred to Rockingham County Superior Court, after he waived his probable cause hearing at Portsmouth Circuit Court, according to the Herald.

Reached by phone on Thursday, Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi said he was not aware of Robertson's death. He said that typically, when defendants die in the middle of a case, the charges against them are nolle prossed, meaning the charges would no longer be prosecuted.

In his obituary, Robertson is described as a loving husband, son, and brother. Raised in Greenland, Robertson graduated Portsmouth High School, and went on to teach music in several communities, including Barrington, Laconia, Dover, Allenstown, and Epsom.

He also developed his own landscaping business, which was primarily a summer occupation.